As Jamie Leigh Jones went public with her $145 million lawsuit against KBR and her alleged rapist, the American news media snapped it up.

ABC-TV's Brian Ross, billed as one of the network's star investigative reporters, profiled Jones in an unabashedly one-sided story, complete with ominous background music, on the television show 20/20. Hers was a story, Ross said, of "sexual brutality, corporate indifference and government inaction," a tale that included "American men, paid by you, taking turns one after another … and she's not the only one."

The tone of ABC's coverage was not unique. CBS Early Show co-host Harry Smith had a segment on Halliburton, KBR's corporate parent, once again being accused of covering up a terrible crime by "some employees." MSNBC also featured Jones' story along with an interview with reporter Dan Abrams, but did not stop there. Keith Olberman, then one of the network's stars, barely concealed his disgust when describing Jones' plight on his own show. He referred to the KBR firefighters whom Jones accused as "mercenaries" apparently beyond the reach of the law, and he predicted "a nightmarish future" when such men returned home and would be free to roam the streets.

Lack of corroboration

Jones had already told her story under oath in congressional testimony, which made it easy for some reporters to gloss over the fact that none of her allegations had been corroborated. It was not until October 2009 that KBR sent out a news release detailing what it called inaccuracies in her story.

The media had their own agenda for granting Jones center stage and treating her gently. In a 24-hour marketplace so often fueled by fresh outrage, Jones was a perfect commodity - soft-spoken and polite and apparently vulnerable.

But the news cycle endlessly refreshes. When the trial verdict went against Jones, many of those media outlets that gave her prime time years ago barely mentioned the trial in passing, if at all. One notable exception was Mother Jones, the liberal magazine that had happily reported her allegations years earlier.

Problems in testimony

While the trial was still ongoing, Mother Jones reporter Stephanie Mencimer wrote an update saying it appeared Jones' case didn't hold water, listing some of problems that had come up during testimony. The publication's mea culpa of sorts did not sit well with readers, who ripped the magazine for suggesting Jones might not have been raped and thereby "siding" with evil corporate villain KBR.

Mother Jones was joined by a few others decrying the initial one-sided coverage. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter wrote a scathing piece about the reflexive media reaction, noting that all Jones "had to do was mention the words 'rape' and 'Halliburton,' and the automatons went wild!" The conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media, often a critic of what it claims is pervasive liberal bias in the press, claimed the early Jones reporting "embodies much of what is wrong with the media today," said its editor, Roger Aronoff.